Wearable technology has gained increase acceptance in recent years, but most such devices are still at the experimental stage, and the ones available commercially still have numerous drawbacks. Within the wearable technology field, Gesture Control Gloves were among the earliest products to appear in the market, yet they are currently still suffering from restricted functionality and a marked lack of versatility. For example, the Nintendo Power Glove was an early example of a wearable hand device used solely for the purpose of gaming.
Further compounding the lack of versatility is the fact that most current wearable glove technology lacks wireless capability; the user can only move as far away from the receiving device as the length of cables/wires will allow. The use of embedded mechanical springs also contributes to the rigidity of such devices and reduces the consumer appeal, while the reliance on custom communications protocols for many such devices further hinders their wide adoption.
There is an unmet need in the market for a wearable gesture glove which implements communication protocol standards known in the industry for interfacing with electronics and computers (i.e. Keyboard, Mouse, Joysticks—well integrated functionally), and which also has the ability to replace mice, gamepads and joysticks to control electronic devices (such as drones, gaming consoles, computers, TV sets, home automation appliances) and to convert hand-sign language into more understandable means of communication (such as text or spoken words).